A woman shields her child from the sun and heat on Friday. ( Express Photo by Oinam Anand)

The mercury is breaching new levels in Delhi with each day hotter than the previous one. If Thursday was a scorcher, Friday was the hottest this season so far with the maximum temperature at the Palam Met observatory touching 47.2 degree Celsius. This is just .2 degrees lower than the highest ever June temperature of 47.4 degree Celsius recorded on June 16, 1995 at the station.

The Safdarjung observatory also recorded the season’s highest at 45 degrees Celsius on Friday. “Both stations of Delhi — Palam and Safdarjung — have recorded the highest temperature this summer so far. At Palam, it is highest for the month of June in the last 19 years,” Dr R K Jenamani, director-in-charge of the Palam Met office, said.

There is no respite in sight, however, with the Met department predicting that the heat wave is likely to continue for the next few days. The maximum temperature is expected to hover around 45 degree Celsius until June 10. The minimum temperature on Friday was recorded at 29.4 degree Celsius, a notch above normal. Humidity levels remained between 30 and 46 per cent during the day.

With the mercury rising, the Power department said power consumption in Delhi too has broken all previous records. “The total power consumption on June 5 was recorded as 108.601 MU. This is the highest ever consumption recorded in a day. The high consumption was recorded despite extensive constraints on the system due to damages caused to transmission and distribution lines in the thunderstorm last week,” a spokesperson of Delhi Transco Limited said.

The peak demand on Thursday was recorded as 5,250 MW. Officials said the highest peak demand recorded in 2013 was 5,653 MW on June 6. Keeping in view the consumption pattern in the past, as well as the increasing heat and humidity, the Delhi government said the power companies are “prepared to meet the peak demand of up to 6,100 MW” this season.